Adapted from In Transit Magazine, Summer, 2003
By Dwight Mengel, Service Development Manager, TCAT
Often, information technology projects are rolled out with a press release and fanfare, but our peer transit systems don't hear much about the aftermath, unless they crash and burn. I want to summarize how our Trip Planner software is working five months after we went live on March 17, 2003. Briefly, we're pleased.
Since approximately 70% of our passengers regularly access TCAT's web site as their primary source of bus schedule information, adding trip planning was a critical upgrade in customer information over the static display of bus schedules. The web site allows users to create individual trip itineraries. These itineraries make it easier for TCAT's 2.7 million annual riders to get around on its 45 bus routes.
From the beginning of the project we were impressed with the Trip Planner's ease-of-use features enabling us to enter and edit bus stop descriptions and photos, route types, schedules, and fares. We have at least six people who are experienced using the Trip Planner to make changes to data and to post public announcements.
This summer TCAT faces the challenge of implementing a fare increase and major service changes by the end of August that were approved by the TCAT Board in May and June. We're working hard on bus schedules, routes, operator work assignments, and all of the other details of the service change. Making changes to the Trip Planner is also on the to-do list. We completed the Trip Planner data entry three days after we had finalized the new bus schedules. The new schedules in the Trip Planner are inactive for now, waiting to be activated for August 21.
We use the Trip Planner to prepare summary schedules to post at major transfer stops. TCAT’s intern and Service Development Manager will work at night to activate the August 21 schedules in order to produce summary schedules. In conclusion, our implementation of the Trip Planner went quite well. TCAT has had a cadre of users who are cross-trained to use the software to update data. We continue to gain insight on how we can improve the customer's experience in using the Trip Planner to further their mobility.
All transit systems are encouraged to share their technology experiences so
we can learn from each other as we meet the demands of the 21st century.
The Trip Planner website can be accessed at tcat.nextinsight.com or through TCAT's web site, www.tcatbus.com.
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